Workshop and installation
Access Test Kitchen is the result of a series of immersive workshops created by long-time collaborators and friends Staci Bu Shea and Mira Thompson. The student participants engaged with texts and concepts centred on disability justice, activism and art. Using the kitchen, cooking and eating as metaphors, they developed ‘recipes’ that practice accessibility from a disability-centred perspective.
Throughout the session, they explored questions that challenge conventional narratives around access and ableism. What do we bring into our shared spaces when we embrace a social understanding of accessibility – one that includes not only physical access, but also emotional, intellectual and social dimensions? What transformative possibilities arise when we conceptualise access not just as a challenge to be met, but as a rich aesthetic experience to be celebrated? Participants responded to these questions by experimenting with the creation of works and their different points of entry, approaching access as a craving to be fulfilled and a collective desire for more ways of gathering together.